by Paul Stimpson, Senior Communications Officer Table Tennis England

A fun eight-week programme that introduces table tennis to youngsters of all abilities, TT Kidz is aimed at seven to 11 year olds.

Once signed-up, a TT Kidz bag is provided holding everything needed to start playing, including TT Kidz shirt, bat, balls and activity book which includes a sticker album.

During the programme, through a series of sessions, children will learn all the basics, keeping active, socialising, developing hand eye co-ordination and core skills; generally having a great time. Earlier this year at almost 30 clubs around England joined the scheme; more than 350 youngsters took part in the first programme.

Received funding

The news comes after Table Tennis Australia received funding to develop a programme to attract youngsters into the sport, leading to discussions with Table Tennis England. It quickly became clear that TT Kidz was a great fit. A licensing agreement between the two bodies has now been signed, allowing Spinaroos to start in the near future. The financial element of the agreement will be used to further grow and develop TT Kidz in England.

Greg Yarnall, Head of Development and Volunteering at Table Tennis England, was instrumental in the agreement being reached.

“We are delighted to be working with Table Tennis Australia to share the philosophies behind TT Kidz and the content developed for the programme. It was clear from the very first time we spoke that there was some synergies between what we had been developing over the past couple of years with what Table Tennis Australia was trying to achieve.

Working with Table Tennis Australia on a licence agreement for TT Kidz was a great way to maximise resources for both parties and it’s something that as a sport we should be doing more of on a worldwide level to maximise the growth of the game.” Greg Yarnall

Grant received

Table Tennis Australia was given the chance to develop an entry-level programme for youngsters after receiving a grant from Sport Australia; proceedings being organised by Patrick Wuertz, Programme Co-ordinator for Table Tennis Australia.

“Through the new beginners’ programme we will introduce thousands of children to table tennis all around Australia in the coming years. We were looking for a programme that is innovative, fun and well-researched and tested. After conversations with Greg Yarnall and seeing the work that was done, we knew from the start that TT Kidz has everything that we were looking for.

Licensing the programme from Table Tennis England will ensure that children in Australia have the best possible experience when starting off with table tennis. Moreover, it will give us additional credibility when talking to partners and programme providers. We are grateful for Greg’s support and thrilled to work in close collaboration with Table Tennis England in the future.” Patrick Wuertz

Greg Yarnall added that both governing bodies were keen to continue working together and that future licensing agreements with other countries were possible.

“We see this as part of an exciting opportunity for the two countries to work more closely together in the future. We are keen to form partnerships with other nations around the world to maximise the extensive work that has been undertaken with TT Kidz, to grow the number of young people taking up our game.

As part of the TT Kidz programme, there are extensive marketing materials available, a strong brand personality, which centres on ensuring the programme is fun, engaging and inspiring for participants and a whole host of resources, lesson plans, activity cards and activity videos, which gives coaches the tools and ideas to be able to deliver the programme, in addition to a website and learning platform set up.” Greg Yarnall

Contact

Greg Yarnall, Head of Development and Volunteering at Table Tennis England
Email: [email protected]